What Rams Can Learn From Super Bowl Champions

I teased this a bit over on Twitter last night, but since the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl last night, the Rams can learn a lot of lessons about building a championship football team.

The Packers were hit really hard by injuries this season, they had 14 players on IR and lost their top receiver and top defensive player during the first half of the Super Bowl. However, the Packers replacements rallied all season and in the playoffs to go from the 6th seed in the playoffs to Super Bowl Champions. Depth is extremely important for any football team, but the Packers made depth exciting again. They found a lot of success throwing to their 4th wide receiver, Jordy Nelson, because that was where they were able to get a slight match up advantage over the Steelers vaunted defense.

Even though Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers is unparalleled in the NFL right now, he is the hottest quarterback and has vaulted himself into the top 5 quarterback category. The most important skill in the Super Bowl for Aaron Rodgers was his accuracy. He repeatedly hit his wide receivers in stride and even though several his passes were dropped, he was able to get enough completed passes to win the game.

The Rams are following the Packers strategy when building their roster: build through the draft which includes drafting a highly accurate quarterback. Sam Bradford has a long way to go until he gets to Aaron Rodgers level, but Bradford has shown the ability to throw well on the run and be highly accurate with his passes. Both are valuable assets for an NFL quarterback.

The Rams are also building solid depth, 7 rounds a time augmented by veteran role players, just like the Packers. The Packers were able to add defenders Ryan Pickett and Charles Woodson through free agency, but most of their roster has been built through the draft and at a slow and sure pace. The Rams are following the same road map, adding solid veterans here and there, but building depth and developing players through the draft.

The Packers have a lot of parallels to where the Rams would like to take their roster and franchise and their Super Bowl victory represents a road map for the Rams for the next 3+ seasons. The Rams will have to continue to build the depth on their roster and develop their franchise quarterback.